After a great deal of huffing and puffing, Britain drags itself over the general election line today.
No party has proved particularly inspiring. Campaigns have often been about what parties won’t rather than will do – and there’s a strong feeling that what comes next hinges as much on what politicians aren’t willing to say as will say.
It was painful to watch but, nonetheless, we’ve made it through and the next round of life in Britain beckons.
It’s a bit like watching last Sunday’s tortuous England match but without the touch of genius and visceral thrill of Jude Bellingham’s overhead goal.
The candidates: They want your vote but what are they promising your finances?
This is Money has long taken a politically neutral stance. Our job is to tell you what’s going on in the world and explain what it means for your finances.
You obviously can’t ignore politics when doing that, but we feel our job is also to hold politicians and governments to account, whatever their hue.
It’s important too to consider ideas across the spectrum too – often good ones can from unlikely quarters.
It’s never more vital to that than when an election rolls round.
This is our chance to have a say on how we want the economy and our finances to be shaped over the next five years.
So, before you vote today – if you haven’t ticked your box already – have a read of our analysis of the manifestos and give our manifesto special podcast a listen back.
> What the Labour manifesto means for your finances
> What the Tory manifesto means for your finances
> What the Lib Dem manifesto means for your finances
> This is Money podcast – election manifesto special
The This is Money team dug into what the main parties are promising for our finances – and what they chose not to mention.
We also looked at the Green and Reform manifestos to see if they had any decent ideas.
And with polling day approaching, we asked investing experts what the election result could mean for investors.
My overall view on the election campaign is that it has been disappointing.
Neither the Conservatives or Labour – the two parties with a genuine opportunity to win power – have been entirely honest with us, or offered a creative vision of how we get Britain back on the up.
Even when a party has come up with a suggestion of doing something, there is scant detail.
Labour’s planning shake-up and desire to get building contains little depth on how to avoid this simply being a charter for big housebuilders to make out like bandits, while selling low quality new homes at premium prices and building on the countryside.
Expensive promises have been made, along with either pledges to cut taxes we can’t afford to cut – the Tories with NI – or claims they won’t put certain tax rates up – as Labour has – even as they intend to stealth tax more out of us.
Meanwhile, no party has promised to fix the counter-productive mess that our tax system is in – and there are fears that some form of tax raid on wealth, in the form of capital gains, pensions, inheritance or something else, is on the way to plug the gap.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has been very blunt on tax and spending, dubbing it a ‘conspiracy of silence’, stating that we either need to increase taxes or cut public spending over the next parliament and saying the manifestos don’t add up.
There is another way forward though: to grow the economy in a much better way.
This leads to my greatest election disappointment, a lack of inspiration and the message that a government can lay the groundwork for growth but it’s up to individuals and businesses to take advantage and deliver it.
Whatever the outcome of the election – and barring a real shock, I think we can all guess it – This is Money will be here to help you understand what it means for your finances.
Tomorrow, over the weekend, and in the coming weeks and months, we will be explaining what you need to do and how to protect and grow your wealth.
